New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-02-13

tenement-house manufacture than for regular fac
tory work. the latter averaging from eight to
twelve dollars a week. But the work II done at
homo can be made to include the entire family and
some 1000 women are engaged In It, an almost
equal but unregistered number Of young children
sharing 1t with them. AS in sewing number of
women often club together, using one ROOM and
In such case their babies crawl about in the filth
on the wet floors, playing with the damp tobacco
ana breathing the poison with which the room
is saturated.
Here as In tobacco factories women and girls
OF every age become speedily the Victims of ner-
vous and hystercal complaints the direct result
| on nicotine poisoning, while succeeding these
como consumption and throat diseases resulting
from the dust. CanlSer is one Of the most fire.
quent difficulties, and sores of many orders, the
trade involving more dangers than any that can
be chosen. Yet because an entire family can find
occupation In it, with necessity for leaving
home, it is often preferred to easier employment.
! 1t is the children who suffer most, growth being
stunted nervous disease developed and ending
often in st. Vitus's dance, and skin diseases of
every order being the rule, the causes being not
only tobacco but the filth in which they live
IL is doubtful IL the most inveterate smoker
would feel much relish for the cigar manufactured
under such conditions yet hundreds OF thousands
go out yearly from these houses, bearing In every
leaf the poison of their preparation. In this
house nearly thirty children Of all ages and sizes.
babies predominating. rolled in the tobacco which
covered the floor and piled in every direction.
and OF these children under ten thirteen were
shippers and did their days work of ten hours
and more. Physical degeneration in it's worst
forms becomes inevitable. Even the factory
child-worSer fares better, for in the factory there
is exercise and the going to and from work while
in the tenement-house cigar-malxing the WORKOUT
little creatures crawl to the bed. often only pile
| of RAGS in the corner or lie down on "a heap Of
the tobacco itself, breathing this poison day and
night uninterruptedly Vices Of every order
flourish in such air, and morality in this trade is
at lowest ebb. Nervous excitement Is 81 intense
that necessarily nothing but immortality can result.
and the child Of eight ten is AS gross and CON
frned offender the full grown or
woman. Diliccnt search discov crs few exceptions
to this rule, and the whole matter has ached "A
stage where legislative Interference is absolutely
INDISPENSABLE. Only in forbidding tenement
house manufacture absolutely can there be any
safety for either consumer producer.
| Following In the line OF inquiry I take
here the facts furnished to Professor Adler by a
lady physician whose work has LONG lain among
the poor During the eighteen months prior to
February !, 1886. she found among the PEOPLE
with whom she came In contact 535 children I'M
der twelve years old most OF them between ten
and twelve, who either worked in shops or stores
or helped their mothers in some kind of work ut
home. or these 535 children but 60 were healthy.
In family child ct three years old had in
fantile paralysis, easily durable The mother had
no time TO attend 10 II. At five years old the
child taught TO sew buttons on trousers.
She il at thirteen hopeless cripple. but she
| finishes dozen pair OF trousers day and her
family thus twenty cents the richer. In an |
other family she found twin girls four and "A half
years old sewing on buttons from in the morn
ing till 10 at night and near them a family
Of three, woman who did the same work and
whose old father Of eighty and little girl Of siX
were her cO-workeis.
| There is compulsory education law. but it
demands only fourteen weeks OF the year. and the
poorer class work from early morning till 8 a. m.
| and after school hours from Till late in the
right. With such energy is left they take
their fourteen weeks OF education, but even in
| these many methods OF evasion practised IL
is easy to swear that the child is over fourteen
but small of its age and this is constantly done.
Ii is sometimes done deliberately by thinking |
worimen, who deny that the common school as
il at present exists give any training that he
desires for his children, or that they will ever
do so till manual training forms part Of their
course. But for most it is not intelligent dis
satisfaction but the absorbing press OF getting a
living that compcls the employment Of child
labor. and thus brings physical and moral de-
generation, not only for this generation but for
many to come. Ii is not alone the 5000 in fac
tories that we must deal with. but many hundred
thousands uncountcd and unIccoenizcd the same
spirit dominating oil.
In one Of thc better class OF tcncment-houses IA
woman, a polisher in jewclry mandatory, said
the other day:
"Pm willing to work hard don't care how
hard but it's awful 10 me to see my little boy
and the way he goes on. He's cashbGy I'D
D---'s. and tboy don't pay by the week. they pay
by checks, every casli-boy is on the keen Jump
after n call. They're worried and anxious and
| afraid they won't get enough, and johnny cries
| and says: Oh. mamma, do try. but there's one
| boy that always gets ahead OF me- think it's
| IN awful system even IL it does mako them
smart"
| An awful system, yet in its ranks march more
and thousands every year. II would seem
us IL every forco in modern civilization bent
toward this end OF money-yctting. and the
| child OF days and the old man OF years alike
shared the passion and ran the same mad race II
| is the passion itself that has out2rown all bounds
| and that faces us tOday-the modern Mcdusa on
which he who looks has more heart Of flesh
and blood but forever heart OF stone, insensible
TO any sorrow. unmoved by any cry Of child or
woman 1t is with this shape that the battle
must be, and no man has yet told its issue
Nay. save hero and there one, who counts that
battle is needed, or the shadow Of the terror
walking not only in darkness but before all mems
eyes, who is there that has not chosen blindness
and will not hear the voice that pleads: "Lct
my people go free"
At TIE CHINESE BALL And ELSEWHERE
Washfngton Letter 10 me Indep,ndtnt
The doors of the surperroom had TO be closed In
| hour because everything eatablc gone. Chinese
servant seated at the door said, with n reprcssve